This invention relates to telecommunications equipment.
Systems for carrying data at increased rates are being developed, and offer the chance to extend the range of services which customers can enjoy using the terminal in their homes. Existing terminals can handle services according to the ISDN specification such as facsimile transmission or computer communication, in additional to analogue telephony, but higher data rates would offer the chance to transmit television signals into the user terminal as well as to permit interactive viewing. Typically, the terminal in the home is linked to the local exchange by means of copper wire pairs, but the increased bandwidth associated with the higher data rates prevents transmission over such distances eg. up to 9 km.
It has therefore been proposed to provide local sites eg. street cabinets for serving subscribers within a, say, 1 km radius, and to combine at that site services which are separately connected to the local exchange or other network eg. ISDN services linked to the local exchange by copper wire pairs and higher data rate services linked by optical fibre. The telecommunications network, it should be noted, already uses street cabinets in densely populated areas, but these are passive devices.
Because the proposed street cabinets would combine signals, it would be necessary to provide a power supply for them. A problem would then arise in the event that the power supply failed.